Touching Satin

 Blimey! It's been 10 days since my last post.

Well, I've been busy, so suck it up cupcake...

But seriously, it's been an interesting time. My return to work after a month's break (such as it was, given my illness) was as always, an uphill struggle readjusting to the 8 hours at my desk and all the pain which comes with that. I punished myself with a week of Napoleonics, WSS and modern skirmish stuff.

Then there's the matter of needing to do essential work on the house, which has been billed at an eye-watering £20,000. 

The knock on effect was that we seriously discussed divesting ourselves of the Satanic Panic and Wargames Elite miniatures ranges, but friends in the industry talked us out of that - thankfully. It's all in hand, but we now have 4 months of upheaval to deal with at the wrong end of the year. Ho hum...

Additionally, the game room is now closed and I spent yesterday filling 12 litre storage boxes with figures. At the 20 box point, I decided that the fantasy collection is truly magnificent, particularly when you consider that I only have half of it in my possession at present.

I also found a load of terrain that I'd forgotten I owned - BONUS!

Hobby-wise, I've been reading a lot of old school books on the Peninsula War, and the reading pile gets higher by the day. I'm trying to get that 80s feel which I always strive for, so Featherstone, Haythornthwaite and Chapell are heavily in the mix, together with 'Digby Von Pivka' and of course Gilder.

Friends are commenting that they have never known me so serene in my hobby, not craving the next 'hit'. I do seem to have largely found my 'happy place' in my hobby.

It's taken me a long time to realise that there are only so many methods of warfare, so that we often have hundreds of figures which, whilst painted differently, play pretty much the same on the table.

A friend of mine is considering the purchase of an Austrian corps from a fellow gamer. It's pretty enough, but - white?, where's the fun in that?

The final batch of fantasy painting has gone to my painter. I added a few bits in there, and he's powering through them at a ridiculous rate.

Speaking of figures, I decided to re-varnish my entire collection with a satin finish, using the Winsor & Newton Professional range. The finish is lovely.

It's not that much shinier but the colours pop more:

Left is the matt and right is the satin.

My leisure time is being spent setting up new Kickstarter projects for Satanic Panic and sorting out the new ranges, including a couple of double secret special projects with my 'Top Gun' sculptor.

I'm not going to shows this year as frankly, I don't have the desire or need to walk around looking at the same 'big box' discounters fighting for a percentage point of profit.

Right, I better get on with the working week...

TTFN